Pretty on the Outside
by deathmeister17
Summary: Luna Discovers one of Celestia's darkest secrets.


**Pretty on the Outside  
**

Princess Celestia, beloved Princess, political leader, and even a religious figure. Loved by many, hated only by the wicked. Of course, who else could bring about the golden age of Equestria? Everything was simply just where they needed to be. Going exactly as planned.

Year after year, day after day, Celestia has raised the sun innumerable times. During the thousand-year hiatus of her sister Luna, Celestia even raised the moon. And today was no different. Celestia has raised the sun, and for the next 24 hours, her schedule seemed awfully dull. Not much was planned in the immediate time frame. There is that meeting with the mayors of Equestria's towns, but that wasn't for three days. To put it bluntly, Celestia was bored, and as such, she tried to occupy herself. Shall it be a day off with dear sister Luna? Perhaps a visit to Ponyville to catch with Twilight and her friends?

"Ah-ha" , she thought to herself, now becoming setting her sights on some unfinished business. She made her way down to the ground levels of the castle.

"I wonder what I would do after I'm done with this," she thought to herself some more. "Maybe I can go down to the spa in Ponyville, Lotus and Aloe are quite extraordinary in their trade. And maybe after that I can visit Twilight, she always enjoys it when-"

An otherwise silent hallways echoed with two ponies saying "Oh!" and a few small apologies. Celestia was lost in thought to the point where she wasn't watching where she was going, and collided with her sister, Luna.

"My apologies, elder sister!" Luna said, giving a small laugh. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

Celestia reassured her sister that it was herself that was not paying attention, and Luna was at no fault.

Just as they were about to part their ways, Luna quickly spoke once more. "Sister, I've been wondering if we could go down into Canterlot to-"

Celestia interrupted, "No time! I have important business to tend to. We can go later today if you want, however. Would that be okay?"

Luna simply replied "Yes" as the two proceeded towards their destination.

"That was strange" Luna thought to herself. "That was so unlike Celestia to interrupt me like that. I wonder what's gotten into her." She shook her head. "Oh, it was probably nothing. Just something that needed her immediate attention. But still…" Luna simply kept walking down the halls of the castle.

Celestia, however had only one thing on her mind. The business at hand. She wanted to make haste to get it done. It had been an un-attended thorn in her side for a long time and had somewhat bothered her that it was not yet taken care of. No longer; It shall be dealt with before it causes any more moments of unrest.

"Finally," she thought. The walk to the bottom floor of her castle seemed longer than what was expected. Such things happen when you are looking forward to doing something.

Celestia walked through the many rooms of the castle's bottom floor, greeting many ponies along the way. Her final destination was an empty back room which had been left alone for a relatively long time. Nobody had guarded it, Princess's orders, and nobody had cared as to what was in the room. It remained locked, only to be opened with a spell cast by Celestia herself.

Celestia entered the room. It was featureless. The room had no furniture, no appliances, no containers, nothing. All it had was the standard room design for the whole castle and a hatch in the corner of the room. The hatch is what Celestia was interested in. It was opened by the same spell that was used on the previous door. Celestia trotted in.

"I sure do hope she's feeling well. Maybe all of her duties are putting too much stress on her." Luna was thinking to herself again. "Maybe I should go check on her to see if she's alright."

It may have been water under the bridge, but Luna was still well determined to make it up to her sister all the trouble she caused with the entire Nightmare Moon ordeal. Luna wanted to be as caring as possible. She resolved to doing just that, not knowing what was to come.

Luna trotted along the castle, asking various guard ponies where her sister went, eventually making her way to the castle floor. She was directed to a small back room. Luna never noticed the room up until now. She never payed attention to it because it served no purpose to her before. Just a door leading to something that didn't matter. But now it did matter. She wanted the well being of her sister, and this room was the only way.

Something was off, though. The door was wide open. Even a hatch on the bottom door, presumably the only thing notable was left sitting ajar. Luna assumed she was in the hatch. It wouldn't make sense for her to just leave everything open if she left. Luna walked into the room, and then through the hatch. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

The room under the hatch was nothing like the rest of the castle. The walls were bland and dark, the room was lit with the red glow of a coal burner. This was it. The castle's power supply.

The sight of the room was the worst of her worries, though. There was much, much worse to be beheld. The first thing Luna noticed was the smell. The putrid odor was near unbearable. It smelled like smoke, trash, and sweat, all piled into one horrid stench. There was another smell too, but Luna couldn't recognize it.

She now was certain Celestia was was dealing with some sort of trouble. Did she need help? Was she okay? Luna, now more determined to find her sister, moved on into the power room.

Eventually she began to hear things, too. Voices. Many voices. It was the sound of many ponies saying something all at once. It was faint, though. Luna couldn't make out what it was.

She moved in the direction of the voices. They were getting clearer now. It sounded like around 50 ponies chanting something. Still not audible. But then it changed. there was a strange sound- it couldn't have been anyone's voice - and then the chants dispersing into panicked yells. Luna also noticed the hair. Even now, as she was walking down a hallway to another part of the room, there was pony's hair gathering on the ground. There were clumps of it. A matted mess of hair. They were off as many different colors as one could think. Hair from more than one pony.

Luna was feeling increasingly nervous. Was Celestia okay? There was some white among the many hues on the floor. Could it have been from Celestia?

Alas, the fear of witnessing an injured Celestia came to pass as Luna reached the end of the hall. Celestia was there. However, Celestia was not injured. She looked angry. Furious. More furious than anything Luna had seen before. Celestia was looking down from a catwalk. Her subject of attention? Ponies. Many of them. Ponies of every Gender, age, size, what have you. They all seemed malnourished. Their rib cages were showing. Many had bald spots painted across their bodies. Luna saw, and realized it was the source of the hair she saw earlier. The Ponies chants become clearer, too.

They were singing all in unison.

"O, Celestia with your master disguise,

Sitting up high on a throne of lies

Holders of truth, through you have died

O, Celestia, so noble and wise

Killer within, Pretty on the Outside"

The ponies chanted it once, but were drowned out by a booming loud scream of rage.

"SILENCE!"

There was a blinding white light, and a familiar strange sound. The chanting Ponies all screamed. They were screams of pain. Celestia was torturing these ponies.

The realization hit Luna suddenly. No sooner had Luna felt something break loose inside of her. She was hit by a whirlwind of emotion. Anger, Sorrow, Confusion, Disappointment. Sweet, sweet Celestia wouldn't do this, right? She was such a wonderful mare, she would never! But the facts were right in front of Luna's eyes. Celestia was torturing her citizens.

"Stop it! Can't you see this is evil? Stop, Celestia, Stop!"

Luna could control herself no longer. She shouted on the spur of the moment. Luna will soon come to regret what she had said.

Celestia noticed. She looked surprised at first. Who said that? It couldn't have been who it sounded like, could it?

But it was. Celestia turned and saw it. There, sitting in the threshold to the torture room, sobbing at what was happening. Princess Luna saw it all.

Luna fought back her crying, as she let out more words to her sister. "Please… please oh please, Celestia…" She choked on her own sobbing. "You're hurting those poor ponies sister…" Luna stopped speaking.

Celestia reacted in a highly different manner, however. She grinned. Let out a chuckle. Laughed.

"Oh, Luna, you have no idea how necessary this is."

Celestia flew down to where Luna was at. Luna wanted to back away, but when she tried, she felt herself restricted by a magical binding, cast be her own sister. She only had words left.

"Sister… why are you doing this?" Luna said weakly.

Celestia replied. "Why? Why not? It's ponies like these that have kept Equestria in order for centuries! They've kept me in power for years!"

Luna didn't understand what was happening. She muttered out "W-What?" a few times before starting to panic.

Celestia sighed. "Let's be blunt here. Luna, these are slaves. I have employed slave work to keep the kingdom in order for years and years. Who do you think fended off all the attackers while you were on the moon? I couldn't face them all by myself! And the ponies here are too damned weak to be able to fight! What do I do? I force them to fight. And it has worked for a thousand years. I have hundreds of them. Thousands of them all over Equestria. This ones here shove coal for the castle's power. I just needed to shut them up with their accursed chanting."

Celestia was acting purely maniacal. She had no problem maiming and torturing her own subjects, whom she was supposed to care for above all else. The kind and caring Princess of everyone's dreams was not what she seemed to be. It was just a facade. A clever cover-up so nobody would ever seriously consider Celestia herself to be so evil.

"It's simple," Celestia continued "Somepony begins to suspect me of using slaves, normally somepony here in this very castle, and they either become slaves, or die in the process."

She looked into Luna's eyes with a grin of pure evil on her face.

"I think you know what I'm getting at."

Luna did not want to believe it. Here own sister, the one whom she cared for and loved above all else! Either killing her or enslaving her. A horrible way to go.

"Hmm, which will I choose," Celestia said. "I could enslave you, and you can become one of my workers out in the field. And you could - wait, no." Celestia reconsidered. "Now, you would be too easy to be recognized as a slave. I don't want to attract any unnecessary attention, now do I? And your magic could help you escape as well. Slavery is not a good idea."

Luna knew what that meant. She wished she hadn't, though.

"I'm sorry to have to do this to you, Luna, but you simply know too much."

Celestia's horn began to glow with magic that was surely going to be a fatal blow to Luna. Luna tried to run. She was trying with all her might. She tried to retaliate. Celestia's magic left her paralyzed. Luna's horn was not aimed properly to affect Celestia.

It was in these final moments when Luna recognized the smell in the air. The iron, metallic smelling stench that floated throughout the torture room. It was blood. The blood of her slaves. The blood she spilled while maintaining her position as the kind and wonderful ruler of Equestria. A position she was bound to keep.

Celestia Smiled.

"Goodbye, sister."

Celestia's horn ignited, and Luna's world faded to black.


End file.
